Our memory is a mysterious and wonderful thing. The other day out of the blue I recalled a friend I had in school. We were good friends but I was always a bit weary of him because he had bad BO! They say that the sense of smell is intimately connected with memory in some way. I like everyone else, I suppose, try to keep the memory of dead family members in mind. We don't want to forget them. So we keep photos and keepsakes to keep them close, as it were. Some times we can feel a bit guilty that we have not remembered an anniversary or some significant event concerning that person. It is almost as if we think that if we forget them that they would cease to exist.

We are reading from John's Gospel in these weeks before Pentecost. Jesus is giving his farewell talk to his disciples in the setting of the Last Supper. He has given them the Eucharist and commanded them to "do this in memory of me." He was not just trying to ensure that he would not be forgotten after his death. It is more the other way around. He gave the Eucharist to tell them that he will not forget them. He will not leave them orphans. God does not forget us. If God were to forget us we certainly would cease to exist

Jesus promises another paraclete, an advocate, when he ascends to the Father. This implies that Jesus is the first paraclete. A paraclete is someone who is called to stand with those in need. John's Gospel is the only place in the New Testament to use this word paraclete which we identify with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the third person of the Trinity. A little later on Jesus says that this paraclete will teach the disciples and remind them of all that he has said to them. There is that idea of memory again. The Holy Spirit almost seems to be God's loving memory living in us.

We do need the Holy Spirit otherwise our discipleship is all our own doing. And we know where our own doing can lead us: Our faith can become a joyless burden we carry and then try to inflict the same burden on our children. If our discipleship is of the Spirit it will be a treasured gift we offer. Is our expression of our faith any very different from the spirit of the world so that the young see no more value in than any other way of life? Is not the hunger that we crave to be filled by God the same hunger all people experience? The difference is that we have a a reason for the hope that we have. That reason is the Spirit of God living in us.

St Paul in his letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, gave us a great description of what it means to be living by the Spirit. He says where there is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control then you are living by the Spirit. On the other hand we are living by the spirit of the flesh when we live with such things as anger, bitterness, condemnation of our neighbour, divisiveness, and non-forgiveness. When these things characterize our lives we shouldn't kid ourselves and think that we are living in the Holy Spirit.

As he talks to his disciples Jesus is preparing them for his departure and for his suffering and death. The same Spirit he promises to give them will also be with him, to stand beside him, his Advocate, through his trials. We are sent the Spirit to remind us that we live in God or we do not have life. The world does not recognise this. Instead the world seeks to live from its own resources and strength. We have been baptised in the Spirit to remind us who we are as creatures of God and beloved ones at that. St Peter tells us in the Second reading that even though we live with that joy, a life of discipleship is not all plain sailing. There will be pain and suffering. This makes it all the more important that we know what is the reason for our hope filled life.

Next Sunday the Church recalls and rejoices in Jesus departure with the Feast of Ascension. The world no longer sees him. But we do see him because he lives in us as he lives in God. We live by that same Spirit we will celebrate at Pentecost. And in that Spirit we and those who have died are not forgotten by God. Even if we forget God does not.

Fr Graham